A group of U.S. Senators
have conspired to destroy local zoning throughoutthe
United States of America. They are trying to do it in secret. They don'twant to hear from someone saying they are
betraying the Constitution theyswore
to uphold.

These U.S. Senators,
members of the Senate Environment Committee, holdAmerican
liberty in such disdain that they conspired behind closed doors torailroad
through a bill that would put faceless bureaucrats in Washington,DC,
in charge of decisions that have always been made at the community level.The bill, S.975, also known as the
"Community Character Act," authorizes theuse
of federal money so that un-elected environmentalists can advance theirextreme-left political agenda.

Secrecy was needed because
opposition has been growing as the harsh realitiesof
S-975 are being revealed by property rights advocates. The Jeffords-ledcabal knew fast action was required if the
bill was to sneak past. S.975, andit's
counterpart in the House (H.R. 1433) will turn all of Bill Clinton'sland-grabbing
Executive Orders into legislation. The Community Character Actwill
officially make the environmental goal of "sustainable
development" thelaw of the land.

What is "sustainable
development"? Imagine an America in which a singleruling
principle is created to decide proper societal conduct for everycitizen.
That principle would be used to determine everything you eat, whatyou
wear, the kind of home in which you live, the way you get to work, theway you dispose of waste, the number of
children you may have, even youreducation
and employment decisions. Imagine, too, that all of these decisionsare
called "voluntary" while the federal government uses its full
power toinduce-coerce--what it deems
"correct behavior."

On June 29, 1993, former
President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order #12852to
create the President's Council on Sustainable Development. Sustainabledevelopment calls for changing the concept of
private property, protected bythe
Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, to nothing short of a nationalzoning
system. Under such a system, the federal government, backed by an armyof private, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) like the Sierra Club,Planned
Parenthood, and the National Education Association will influence, ifnot dictate, property and other policies to
the States and to localcommunities.

Locally elected officials
will no longer be the single driving force inmaking
decisions for their communities. Most decisions will be arrived atbehind
the scenes by non-elected "sustainability councils" armed withtruckloads of federal regulations, guidelines
and money. The power ofcitizen's votes
would be nullified. This system is already in place withregard
to the nation's education system, controlled entirely from Washington,DC.

It is comparable to the
Communist system of the former Soviet Russia.

The Community Character Act
(S.975), and its counterpart in the House ofRepresentatives
(H.R.1433), is legislation that will legalize enforcement of"sustainable
development" in every community in the nation. The bill requireslocal governments to implement land-management
plans using guidelinesoutlined in a
federal document called the "Smart Growth LegislativeGuidebook."
This publication was developed with $2 million provided by theClinton
Administration to "guide" counties, cities and towns on how to"update their local zoning."

The Community Character Act
offers grants to communities that will pay up to90%
of the costs for localities to update their zoning, but only if they doit the way the federal government wants it
done. Among other goals, the guiderequires
localities to "promote social equity." Communities will be
requiredto establish social programs
that will be paid for with new or increasedtaxes
on businesses and industry. What better way to discourage businessgrowth?

The Community Character Act
requires localities to "conserve historic,scenic,
natural and cultural resources." These are euphemisms that mean moreland grabs and fewer places where humans can
freely go about their dailylives. It
means planned economies, restricted housing, diminished use ofcars,
and government control of property.

The Community Character Act
demands that communities "integrate local land-use plans with Federal
land-use plans." That means local needs, localproblems.
and local culture will be ignored as the entire nation ishomogenized
into one, unhappy, colorless, controlled Big Brotherhood.

The bill contains not a
single mention of private-property rights protection.The
federal government and states now own forty percent of the entirelandmass
of the nation. Under the Community Character Act, money would beprovided
to render more land unavailable for any development or use.

This legislation must be
stopped. If not, America will be unrecognizable tofuture
generations. It is time for the Republicans in Congress to decide ifthey
truly believe in the concept of limited government under whichindividual
Americans are free to determine their destinies and achieve theirdreams
and goals, without intrusion and dictates. Under "sustainabledevelopment"
there are no individual decisions, rights or actions. Virtuallyeverything
will come under the scrutiny of a Washington-sanctioned federalbureaucrat.

Senate Minority Leader
Trent Lott and House Speaker Dennis Hastert must unitetheir
party to stop this attack on one of the fundamental principles of theConstitution. If enacted, it will not
"sustain" development. It will end it.It
will destroy the machine that maintains our economy and insures itsgrowth.
A secret, backroom deal has set this in motion.

Tom DeWeese - All
Rights Reserved

Tom DeWeese is the
president of the American Policy Center, an activist,grassroots
think tank and publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report, a monthlynewsletter.
The Center is headquartered in Warrenton, Virginia. The Centermaintains
an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org